• Education,  Protecting Democracy

    A Deeper Dive: Citizens United, Super PACs, and Dark Money

    In our introduction to federal campaign finance, we discussed the landmark Supreme Court case Citizens United v. FEC, which caused substantial waves in the world of campaign finance. Though it has now been more than 13 years since this case was decided, it is important to understand how this decision has influenced the topics and issues at play today.  What was the case actually about?  Citizens United is the name of a nonprofit organization that created a political documentary called “Hillary: The Movie.” This film was designed to criticize presidential candidate and then-Senator Hillary Clinton. It was scheduled to be released right before the Democratic primary elections in January 2008,…